I currently study bumble bee communities along Colorado's Front Range, examining how species respond to urbanization, land management, and conservation interventions - with a particular focus on population genetic health.

In 2025, I combined community surveys with genetic mark-recapture methods to estimate colony density, assess genetic diversity, and evaluate inbreeding levels across multiple species. In 2026, I'm partnering with Denver Parks & Recreation to investigate how urban landscape features shape bee gene flow and genetic diversity across the Denver metro region. Using population genomics and landscape resistance modeling, I'm sampling several bee species that vary in body size and social organization to understand how connectivity and habitat resistance drive genetic patterns across the city. Together, this work aims to identify which species and habitats are most vulnerable and to inform pollinator-friendly urban design.

The rusty-patched bumble bee (Bombus affinis) was once widespread across the eastern United States but has experienced a dramatic decline and range contraction in recent decades. A recent study (Mola et al. 2024) identified three genetically distinct clusters among remaining populations, aligned along an east-to-west gradient. I am currently analyzing genetic structure from pre-decline museum specimens (1960–1990) to determine whether this pattern emerged as a result of the species' decline or reflects long-standing genetic differentiation that predates it.

As an undergraduate and post-baccalaureate researcher at the University of Minnesota, I studied butterfly-parasite interactions involving Pteromalus parasitoid wasps and tachinid flies. 

Relevant Publications: Tachinid Fly (Diptera: Tachinidae) Parasitoids of Danaus plexippus (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae)